Cash Culture Clash

“I spoke to Bono and he compared what Johnny is doing to what Elvis Presley did in the 1950’s. Then, Elvis represented a new youth culture, and it shocked and terrified everone because culture wasn’t about youth before him. Now we live in a youth culture and Johnny Cash is showing the experience of a much older generation. It’s just as radical.”

bono’s comments on johnny cash/aging/pop-culture are bang-on. have you seen the latest video (single) that he’d done?

I was going to write up something about his latest album myself, but the description at CDNow/Amazon is so well done, I’m just going to snatch it and put it here:

“On first thought, the idea of the Man in Black recording such covers as “Bridge over Troubled Water,” “Danny Boy,” and “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” might seem odd, even for an artist who’s been able to put his personal stamp on just about everything. But American IV: The Man Comes Around, which also draws on Cash’s original songs as well as those by Nine Inch Nails (“Hurt”), Sting (“I Hung My Head”), and Depeche Mode (“Personal Jesus”), may be one of the most autobiographical albums of the 70-year-old singer-songwriter’s career. Nearly every tune seems chosen to afford the ailing giant of popular music a chance to reflect on his life, and look ahead to what’s around the corner. From the opening track – Cash’s own “The Man Comes Around,” filled with frightening images of Armageddon – the album, produced by Rick Rubin, advances a quiet power and pathos, built around spare arrangements and unflinching honesty in performance and subject.

“In 15 songs, Cash moves through dark, haunted meditations on death and destruction, poignant farewells, testaments to everlasting love, and hopeful salutes to redemption. He sounds as if he means every word, his baritone-bass, frequently frayed and ravaged, taking on a weary beauty. By the time he gets to the Beatles’ “In My Life,” you’ll very nearly cry. Go ahead. He sounds as if he’s about to, too. Unforgettable.”
— review written by Alanna Nash

bono’s comments on johnny cash/aging/pop-culture are bang-on. have you seen the latest video (single) that he’d done?

I was going to write up something about his latest album myself, but the description at CDNow/Amazon is so well done, I’m just going to snatch it and put it here:

“On first thought, the idea of the Man in Black recording such covers as “Bridge over Troubled Water,” “Danny Boy,” and “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” might seem odd, even for an artist who’s been able to put his personal stamp on just about everything. But American IV: The Man Comes Around, which also draws on Cash’s original songs as well as those by Nine Inch Nails (“Hurt”), Sting (“I Hung My Head”), and Depeche Mode (“Personal Jesus”), may be one of the most autobiographical albums of the 70-year-old singer-songwriter’s career. Nearly every tune seems chosen to afford the ailing giant of popular music a chance to reflect on his life, and look ahead to what’s around the corner. From the opening track – Cash’s own “The Man Comes Around,” filled with frightening images of Armageddon – the album, produced by Rick Rubin, advances a quiet power and pathos, built around spare arrangements and unflinching honesty in performance and subject.

“In 15 songs, Cash moves through dark, haunted meditations on death and destruction, poignant farewells, testaments to everlasting love, and hopeful salutes to redemption. He sounds as if he means every word, his baritone-bass, frequently frayed and ravaged, taking on a weary beauty. By the time he gets to the Beatles’ “In My Life,” you’ll very nearly cry. Go ahead. He sounds as if he’s about to, too. Unforgettable.”
— review written by Alanna Nash

Youth culture rules because it’s filled with optimism and vitality (and naivety that’s exploitable). The oldies die and fade no matter how many museums are errected and no matter how many “remakes” are mixed up by their adoring fans. I abore the term GENIUS because it dehumanizes the people it describes by putting them on some invisible realm above the average man. Most of the people titled geniuses are some of the most average men around…take Einstein. What made him a “genius” was his love and truth. He didn’t want people to die in a nuclear holicaust…Bono doesn’t want people to die in an AIDS epidemic…Hiroshima was obliterated…Uganda will lose tons of people, too…because the process has already started long before we came on the scene.

Youth culture rules because it’s filled with optimism and vitality (and naivety that’s exploitable). The oldies die and fade no matter how many museums are errected and no matter how many “remakes” are mixed up by their adoring fans. I abore the term GENIUS because it dehumanizes the people it describes by putting them on some invisible realm above the average man. Most of the people titled geniuses are some of the most average men around…take Einstein. What made him a “genius” was his love and truth. He didn’t want people to die in a nuclear holicaust…Bono doesn’t want people to die in an AIDS epidemic…Hiroshima was obliterated…Uganda will lose tons of people, too…because the process has already started long before we came on the scene.

ha ha…depression is very much a “youth thing”…thousands commit suicide…oh no, another one for Bono’s crusade list. I’m a very positive person…really! You can be optimistic while not ignoring the reality of life; which for me includes a progression to a better way of life for all and the end to all suffering Revelation 21:3,4

ha ha…depression is very much a “youth thing”…thousands commit suicide…oh no, another one for Bono’s crusade list. I’m a very positive person…really! You can be optimistic while not ignoring the reality of life; which for me includes a progression to a better way of life for all and the end to all suffering Revelation 21:3,4